Press Trust of India | 28-Jan
19:34 PM Beijing: China on
Saturday refuted Human
Rights Watch (HRW)
criticism over
deteriorating human
rights situation in Tibet, amid tense stand off in
the region over a spate
of suicides by Buddhist
monks and anti-regime
protests. The People's
Daily, the flagship newspaper of the
Communist Party of China
(CPC), denied HRW
criticism that "police
dominate criminal justice
system, which relies disproportionately on
defendants' confessions." "Weak courts and tight
limits on the rights of the
defence mean that forced
confessions under
torture remain prevalent
and miscarriages of justice frequent," HRW
said. The Daily said HRW
statement "seriously
distorted" the truth of
China's human rights
conditions as a whole and
its description of the country's judicial reforms
is "particularly biased and
untrue." "It is known that China's
criminal justice system is
not dominated by police
organs, but consists of
investigation organs led
by the police organs, people's procuratorates
and people's courts," said
the article. The rejoinder came as
China grappled with
continuing protests by
Tibetan in Sichuan
province. Sixteen monks
and nuns attempted self immolations in the recent
months calling for return
of Dalai Lama. China said two protestors
were killed early this
week when
demonstrators clashed
with police. The daily said
under Chinese law, criminal prosecution
proposals raised by
police must be reviewed
by procuratorial
authorities before a
decision on whether to bring criminal cases to
court can be made by the
latter. China's criminal justice
system is not dominated
by police organs, but
operates based on the
work of all three parties -
people's courts, people's procuratorates, and
police - who play their
own assigned roles and
restrain from each other,
the article said. "The rights and role of
defence lawyers in the
handling of criminal cases
has been strengthened,
and the phenomenon of
excessive reliance on defendants' confessions
is diminishing," it said.